Week 9, Day 1

Snatch: 5 singles
Clean and jerk: 3 singles
Back squat: 3 sets of 5 reps

Today we begin a new block of our training: the competition block! The next few weeks are all about consistency with heavier and heavier loads. As most of you know by now, there is a big difference between making lifts in the gym and making lifts on the competition platform. On our heavy days in the gym, we often get multiple attempts at that PR weight. We have optimal conditions, we lift when we are ready, etc. On the competition platform, we have no such luxury. We only get three lifts total on the platform to hit our best. We are on the clock. We might not get that perfect amount of rest between lifts, may have to skip warm-ups or take extra warm-ups depending on the time, lift on equipment we aren't used to, etc. Consequently, we have to be our best on competition day, and confident and ready to hit our biggest lifts. This next block of training is all about preparing us for this. The goal is to hit heavier and heavier lifts, closer and closer to our bests, with consistency and confidence. When we come out for our openers, we know with 100% confidence that we will make the lift, because we've made those lifts tons of times in training. On days like today when we have multiple singles at a working weight prescribed, the goal is to make all or nearly all of the lifts. Over the course of the next few weeks, we will try to take these working weights up higher and higher. A good goal for days like today is to hit something around 90% of your LAST MAX (i.e., last Saturday), and to keep working both of those weights up week to week (the max on Saturdays and the working weights on Tuesdays). Of course, that is just a number to shoot for, and each day we should just work as heavy as we can with good technique and consistency. For the squats, we are going to continue the progression we have been following up until probably the week before competition. Just keep incrementing those weights about 2 kg a week! Our next meet will be sometime in the middle of October. Let's get ready!